Yeah, I think you'd call it woven wire. they call it cattle wire around here. It stretched really well. My wife and I just finished a fence to make a pen for two young pups we adopted. It was made from welded wire and didn't really stretch. You could pry it with the claw of a hammer to snug it up, but that was about it. I had read that about goats getting their heads caught, and the recommendation was to fortify it with electric fence.getchagoat (Julie) said:By stretched wire, do you mean woven wire? We use that on the perimeter, but still put one strand of electric on the inside as young goats can get their horns stuck.
We mill our own lumber, and I had hoped to outfit most of the shed with wood, reinforcing with metal as necessary, and resigning myself to the fact that some stuff will have to be replaced due to gnawing. The good news is that the lumber we mill is like steel. I know it won't hold up to constant gnawing, but will last longer than store-bought lumber.getchagoat (Julie) said:We use goat panels to divide up the barn (smaller openings than cattle panels)...
http://www.backwoodshome.com/forum/...tools;action=display;num=1180024329;start=5#5
and
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/barden104.html
We rebuilt a chicken house with the stuff, and after bending a handfull of nails, had to resort to drills and screws.
http://www.backwoodshome.com/forum/...-building-tools;action=display;num=1173284529
There are some excellent ideas in this section, some more ambitious than I had in mind, but the shed Sara built really gave me some thoughts on keeping it simple. http://thegoatspot.freeforums.org/viewtopic.php?t=936 I'm no carpenter, and like EnjoyTheRide said, all my stuff has it's own "tilt" to it (sometimes roller-coaster). I also have a tendancy to overcomplicate things, and if not for my wife I would have gotten into major trouble a long time ago. I have to go to her frequently to see if I'm getting carried away.
Like the chicken house, it has to be large enough for immediate storage. Surplus hay could be stored outside, under cover. Of course, room for milking and general work inside on foul weather days.
That's bad news. We are on a fixed income, and there's no way I could get a line run that far from the house. I was hoping to roof the shed(s) with solar to take care of the electric in back. How long ago did you try? Do you remember how large the system was? Eventually we'd like to get off grid, so keeping electric usage down is important.getchagoat (Julie) said:... and use electric on the interior pastures. I do not recommend a solar panel. We tried that and had absolutely no luck.
Breeding is an eventuality to keep the does fresh and for meat. I had figured the buck, if we can't find a local for service, would have separate accomodations with a whether for company. I had read having a buck with the doeas could give the milk an off taste.getchagoat (Julie) said:When/if you start to breed, you want to light up your buck if he tries to sneak back in with the does.
No plans for commercial breeding or selling. Too much stuff going on with NAIS and such. I don't want to do anything that might attract gov't attention or put me under regulation.
Thanks. I appreciate the advice. From reading product literature at TSC and the coop, I see there are some real tricks to electric fencing and tools to keep you from pulling your hair out.getchagoat (Julie) said:As far as heights for the electric, start at 6" to keep small ones in. We did 6", 12", 18", 24", 36", and 48" at our other farm. But I think we only have 4 or 5 strands at this one. I'll check with Brad, my hubby. Make sure you get it grounded good. And get a fence tester to make sure all of it is working and to trouble shoot when it goes dead somewhere.
Regards,
Pat